Hamilton Island Holiday Resort is a popular destination for both national and international tourists who wish to visit one of Australia's tropical coral islands. Hamilton Island is situated on the Great Barrier Reef, off the northeast coast of Queensland, and forms part of the Whitsunday group of islands.

PROBLEM

With the upgrading of the Hamilton Island Holiday Resort to accommodate 1,500 tourists in first-class style, a new source of fresh water had to be found. The resort had originally been supplied from open water dams, which depended on the collection of rainwater. The water had a high salinity content, and although safe to drink, was unpleasantly salty to the taste.

SOLUTION

Ausmos, Australia, one of the Netafim Australia industrial dealers, was commissioned to design, build and install a seawater filters system, including a desalination and water purification plant with the capacity to supply approximately 264,000 gallons of fresh water per day for the resort.

During windy and stormy conditions, the backwash frequency is every 20 minutes.

A weekly, routine examination is performed on one randomly selected filter by opening the selected filter and checking for marine growth. Discs are replaced every three months with clean discs which have been soaked in a diluted acid solution to remove calcium deposits.